I have mixed feelings about my GPS and recently changed the voice from Jane to John after a particularly testy exchange when Jane directed me into an industrial wasteland instead of a pub then kept insisting I perform a U-turn when possible.

The heated exchanges I have with Jane, however, pale in comparison to those exchanged with my latest project, the sixteen year old daughter who is learning to drive. Don’t you wish you were sixteen and knew everything too? This issue won’t go away – not in my house anyway; for every child you own / lease, there’s 120 hours of parent-teen bonding time to be faced before a P-plate can be issued.

This is where the LASER Navig8r i50 with “unique driver profiles” may come in handy. Instead of Miss 16 getting shirty with me when I remind her to keep under 80km an hour at all times, she can take it up with Jane. Good luck with that one.

The Driver Profiles means you can set up unique limits and logs. Set the profile to Learner, for example, and good old Jane will monitor the learner drivers’ speed against the signposted limit, maintain a driving log, display real time data on driving hours accumulated and percentage of driving time speeding. You can even print out a driving log report for presentation to your state roads authority. (Though I’m not sure if they will care, it’s nice to know you can.)

Also useful to track driving behaviour and speeds for P-platers borrowing the family car, and for truck drivers and business people who need to maintain a log book of driving hours and distances. You can enter the current speedometer and reason for trip at the start of each journey and the GPS will calculate time and kilometres and allow you to print reports.

This little beauty also has a SpeedAlert that tells you current speed limits, a large 5-inch LCD touchscreen with anti-glare and Bluetooth.